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Higher and Further: The Innovations of Linux 2.6.28

"With Linux 2.6.28, the kernel hackers have concluded
the main development phase of the ext4 filesystem, removing the
security warnings that this successor of ext3 was still only meant
for developers, testers, and keen experimenters. Extensively
rewritten code to manage memory, data media and the GPU is claimed
to provide slight or major speed increases, while improvements in
various areas of the kernel aim to extend notebook battery life a
little. As with every new Linux version in the main development
line, there are also hundreds of new or significantly revised
drivers. Among the new ones are, for example, those for the
Elantech touchpad installed in many Asus Eee PCs and for the
Atheros L2 network chip. The kernel hackers have updated the sound
drivers to the alsa (advanced linux sound architecture) 1.0.18
release. They have also incorporated a number of drivers that have
known issues, in the hope that the kernel community will pull
together and jointly improve them so that they can be supplied as
regular drivers in the future.

"These and many other changes over the last ten weeks have
brought the total size of the Linux source code to more than 10
million lines. The detailed change log, measuring several
megabytes, lists all the changes that have been made from version
2.6.27. The following Kernel Log provides a brief overview of the
innovations in the latest kernel version. Ordinary Linux users who
don't normally bother with this central element in their Linux
system will also benefit from them when the next distribution
update incorporates this or a later version of the Linux
kernel."